If you're looking for a plant to purchase, and can't find it, we think our customized search engine is your best bet. It's free and focused exclusively on sites that sell plants. If you want information about a plant, or a picture of it, you need to look somewhere else. Good places to start would be Yahoo Search, Google Images, and Andersen Arboretum.

Just type the name of the plant into the box and click on the Search button. One of the main reasons people can't find plants is that they can't spell, so make sure you are spelling the name correctly. Botanical (Latin or Greek) names are best. Common (English) names may work, but keep in mind that several plants may go by the same common name, and one plant may have several common names. To search for an exact phrase, put quotes around your search words. To come back to this page, click on the World Plant Search logo.

If you don't live in the United States, or if you do, but the only sources you found were in another country, be aware that most nurseries don't ship internationally. That's because international shipping has become a giant pain in the neck, not worth the trouble for most suppliers. (Begging usually doesn't help.) European countries are a partial exception; many European nurseries will ship within the European Union, but not outside it. If you live in Europe, you're better off looking for your plant with the RHS PlantFinder. It's free and lists UK nurseries, most of which ship within the EU. Often, the only practical way to get plants that aren't available in your country is to buy seed. You may still need to buy a phytosanitary certificate and obtain an import permit, but at least it's possible. With some plants, that's really the only way. For example, you can't import Citrus plants into the US (or into some states), imported bamboo needs to stay in quarantine for a few years, and most Australian plants can't be imported, except as seed.

If the search engine didn't find the plant you were looking for, there is still a small chance that we can find it for you. Please note that we do human-powered searches only for US residents, and do not search for herbal/medicinal/magickal, or illegal plants. Ornamentals only, please.
Please note: beyond telling us what general kind of plant it is, e.g., tree, bulb, carnivore, etc., descriptions are of little use. We need a name.

Click here for a human-powered search.

FireFox users' tip

If you would like to add a mailorder nursery to our database, just email me. We're adding more all the time, but we do include only suppliers that will ship plants. groe@worldplants.com